Remembering Cory Lidle (and sparing the missile)

Perhaps Cory Lidle's tragic death was too much of a metaphor for the Yankees' early playoff exit, but suddenly NYers are blocking out Yankee discussions by focusing on the security of our airspace. Politicians, in particular, are wondering why it's so easy to fly a light plane into a Manhattan skyscraper.

Is it so hard to comprehend how, in the post-9/11 era, light planes, helicopters and blimps aren't shot out of the sky over Manhattan? Okay, that's not really the question -- but that is precisely the point.

Despite the guys who broke into the cockpits and executed the pilots on 9/11, there aren't that many people in America lining up for suicide missions on US soil. Small planes and helicopters have been reasonably good about ditching into the rivers when possible, and it is because pilots around here want to live. Accidents happen, whether mechanical or pilot error, but if it's really so hazardous then we'd have a lot more than the errant blimp a few years back to show for it.

Protecting ourselves against maniacs in fuel-laden jets has nothing to do with stopping them at the river. Arrangements for flying light aircraft and dropping chemical or biological agents over the city are far more difficult and expensive than executing a pedestrian-borne gas attack.

What we really need is a pro-active "sting" approach. The sting first identifies the most serious candidates for local suicide missions, and then Homeland Security deports them to the sub-surface offshore bunker near Virginia where they are housed in cells are filled with all imaginable creature comforts, plus spikes.

Or, the strategy could be incorporated into the reef-building program that is so popular with environmentalists. Heck, each detainee could simply get behind the wheel of their favorite pre-owned vehicle moments before its volume is reduced to the size of a portable television set.

As Americans, we have the right to compress our cars against bridge abuttments and oncoming school buses as long as we do it without the use of performance-impairing substances. Our system works even now because, as Americans, we choose not to.

Accidents are going to happen, and they can happen to anyone. Lidle's flight was, unfortunately and tragically, his last wild pitch.

Lighten up, the original tag line was worse.